UAE to take more manpower from Bangladesh: Mannan

Sun Online Desk
17th February, 2018 07:33:45

Although there was sluggish trend in manpower export to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the last couple of years, the gulf nation is likely to recruit more manpower from Bangladesh soon.

"They've (UAE) assured us that recruitment of more manpower from Bangladesh is under consideration. I think if UAE recruits Bangladeshi workers more in the coming days, it would be beneficial for both the countries," State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan informed, reports BSS.

Mannan attended the two-day 4th Bangladesh-UAE Joint Commission meeting held in Abu Dhabi on February 5-6.

He led the Bangladeshi side while UAE State Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Anwar Gargash led the UAE side in the two-day Joint Commission meeting held after a gap of long eight years.

Mannan said the meeting took place at a time when the manpower export to UAE has marked a fall drastically as the UAE authorities also feel reluctant to some extent to provide visas to the Bangladeshi workers.

During the meeting, Mannan said Bangladesh has apprised the UAE side that the present Awami League government has worked a lot to enhance the skills of the workers who are now more capable to contribute to the growth and development of the UAE.

Bangladesh delegation, he said, has also informed the UAE side that the Bangladesh government has been going ahead with the operations of machine-readable passports while electronic visas are also in the offing.

"I think UAE will start recruit more manpower from Bangladesh like in the past as they're working to this end.

They've also assured us of addressing the visa related problems," added the state minister.

Talking to the national news agency, an official at the Economic Relations Division (ERD) said during the meeting, Bangladesh pointed out various difficulties being faced by its nationals in getting visas to visit UAE, including visit visas and work visas.

"The UAE side informed the Bangladesh side that they will coordinate with the relevant authorities of the UAE to study the issue and discuss the matter with the Bangladesh side," added the official.

Besides, the official informed that Bangladesh handed over UAE delegation three specimens of machine-readable passport booklets (diplomatic, official and ordinary) which are being used by Bangladesh citizens.

According to the Bangladesh Bank, the UAE has long been one of the major destinations for Bangladesh in terms of getting remittances as the inward remittance from the UAE in FY14 was $2,684.86 million which rose to $2,823.77 million in FY15.

The inflow of remittance from the UAE, however, dropped to $2,711.74 million in FY16 and $2,093.54 million in FY17 while the six-month figure in the current fiscal year totaled $1,138.36 million.

The data of the Bureau of Manpower and Training (BMET) showed that the highest number of 2,82,739 Bangladeshi workers went to the UAE in 2011 followed by 2,15,452 workers in 2012.

But, after that the outbound flow of Bangladeshi workers to the UAE witnessed a drastically fall as some 14,241 Bangladeshi workers went to the UAE in 2013 followed by 24,232 workers in 2014, some 25,271 workers in 2015, some 8,131 workers in 2016 and some 4,135 workers in 2017.